in washington which i am frankly puzzled by. congress, the legislative branch, has five tools -- proceedingses, oversight, legislation, communication by all of its members and negotiation. negotiation's the weakest of the five tools. i frankly wish the house republicans would go home, relax, they voted to stop a middle-class tax increase f. harry reid wanted to stop it in the senate, that's fine. the president wants to veto it, that's fine. this is not a crisis that will end the republic. it's a mess. i wish we would go back to open negotiations, to open hearings, to open markups. letting the american people see the process, i think negotiating in secret in the white house, producing a $1 trilln, $2 trillion deal in the next 10 days i think is the worst possible outcome. >> to me, i have been surprised because they have known this was coming for a year. yet, seems like after the election, nobody had any plan. the republicans have been in the cul-de-sac. i keep thinking, why aren't they blaming president obama and senator reid for the -- for not bringing the democrats along, which was the point